Quade Cooper's first press conference as a boxer wasn't quite as cordial as the standard Super Rugby fare, with his opponent Barry Dunnett claiming Cooper's trainer had overlooked major faults in his technique that would cost him the fight on Friday.

Cooper, who will take on Dunnett at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, has been training at an inner-northside gym under the tutelage of Shannon 'Shaggy' King, who has trained Dunnett in the past.

Dunnett has studied footage of Cooper sparring and working the pads and said there was a host of technical issues that King was failing to address – ones that could see the Wallabies and Reds star have the lights turned out at Boondall.

Sonny Bill Williams and Quade Cooper face the media, along with their opponents Barry Dunnett and Frans Botha.

“I've seen him do some pads and sparring. There's a lot of faults there. To be honest, I know Shaggy well, and one of the things he does is tell you how great you're going but doesn't pick up on the small things you're doing wrong. No offence, Shaggy,” Dunnett said.

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“Hats off to him – he's a gifted fighter. But he likes to tell you what you're doing right. He's not big on telling you what you're doing wrong."

Cooper didn't buy into the slanging match, although he did fire off a small salvo at Dunnett, a 32-year-old journeyman boxer and Muay Thai fighter who counts this as the biggest opportunity of his fighting career.

Barry Dunnett and Quade Cooper get acquainted at Kangaroo Point last month.

“This is boxing, but I'm not going to get in to a schoolyard back and forward. I'm not here to embarrass people. It's probably the first time he's (Dunnett) been here and had people interested in what he's doing,” Cooper said.

King has earlier proclaimed Cooper a naturally gifted fighter with a genuine future in the ring if he can negotiate the nerves of his first outing.

“For the amount of training he's done, he's hands down one of the most skillful natural boxers I've seen. So yeah, we'll win,” King said.

But King was worried about reports that Dunnett floored a former sparring partner of Sonny Bill Williams with a body shot on the weekend. Fairfax Media saw footage of the fighter, who gave Williams a torrid time at a higher weight class than Dunnett and Cooper.

“Quade is very powerful, I'll give you that. Barry just actually dropped a fella that sparred Sonny the other night, which was a shock. It's going to be a really good fight,” King said.

Williams and Frans Botha, who meet in the main event, were respectful at the press conference, with Williams acknowledging he was stepping up in class and the 44-year-old Botha watchful of the inexperienced Williams, who has won all of his five fights.

“It's a privilege to be able to be in the ring with him. It's a challenge and there are nerves,” Williams said.